Address by the President of the Republic of Estonia H.E. Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves at the High-level panel discussion on Strengthening the Rule of Law: the Fight against Corruption and its Impact on Sustainable Economic Growth

24.09.2012

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Excellences,

Distinguished representatives of governments
and international organizations,

Partners from civil society and private
sector,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the declaration we adopted at the General Assembly a few hours ago, we recognized the link between corruption, rule of law and economic growth. Where you see no rule of law, you see
corruption. Where you see poor rule of law, you see corruption. Where you see
genuine rule of law, you see less corruption. We agreed on the importance
of the rule of law for generating inclusive, sustainable and equitable
development, economic growth, that is to say, generating employment, investment and facilitating entrepreneurship. We
also rightly declared that corruption obstructs economic growth and
development, erodes public confidence, legitimacy and hinders the making of fair and effective laws,
which is all very good, but the point remains that declarations must befollowed
by action. We
know of too many declarations that have been agreed to, but have led nowhere.

Only a society based on the rule of law has the necessary means to
prevent corruption and cure the ills that result. In fact, as I said, if
you don’t have rule of law, then you’re absolutely bound to see corruption.Economists, similarly have repeatedly found that
the better the rule of law, the better
off the nation.

Corruption breeds more
corruption and facilitates other crimes, impedes economic and social
development, and diminishes
democracy.
Corruption is finer grained issue
than we often admit. Lest we think here that corruption is an issue that
doesn’t affect the developed world and is a problem elsewhere, then it is
instructive to peruse the Transparency International list and to compare it to
the countries in the Eurozone with fiscal problems today. Or to take another
example from the EU, CAP or the Common Agricultural Policy. Estonia together
with other countries in Northern Europe were all pleased a few years ago when
it was agreed that all CAP funds, agricultural policy funds, which account for
40 % of the entire EU budget, would be public, thatwe know where they go. Weoperate on the principle money is
public,the public should know where it
goes. There should be no secrecy in such matters. This was accepted by the
Commission, it became EU policy, and for several years we knew who got what
money. Yet a number of member states challenged this in the courts, and
won.European transparency lost, and
today, once again we do not know who gets 40 % of the EU budget, unless the
country itself publically declares it, as we do for example. Governments must lead by example, they must not just think that corruption is the problem
of other people. So we hope that even our colleagues in the European Union take
this to heart and take transparency more seriously,people need to know what is going on, they
need to know what is wrong, what is right, and they also need to know and feel
that they are empowered to speak about it.

Ladies and
Gentlemen:

I was proud to
represent Estonia when I signed up to the Open Government
Partnership, along with 42 other countries. This
multilateral initiative aims to take concrete steps to institute a new
model of governance, to maximize the potential of new technologies and to tackle corruption.

The information revolution that we experience
these days has assisted my country to successfully and rapidly transform ourselves,into a rule-based and
rather uncorrupt society.

Absence of transparency, as I noted, breeds corruption. We in
Estonia, on the other hand have tried to put as much of governance as possible
online through innovations such as E-tenders, publication of all expenses by
government officials, public sector incomes online, all to open up the
governing process to public inspection. These are fairly elemental steps. Less obvious but no less important is that E-governance allows us to
eliminate nodes of opaque discretionary and arbitrary decision-making. Which in
plainer language means that administrative decisions that in reality are
non-discretionary, that is say
there is no need to reach a deliberateddecision; if you meet criteria, if you check off the necessary boxes,
you are legally entitled to a public good, be it a business licence or school
enrolment. All such processes can be done online, no official or bureaucratneed
have a say in the matter, More bluntly, you can’t
bribe a computer. In fact the best argument for use of ICT in government and
the public sector more broadly is the cleansing effect that the openness
provided by ICT.

Estonians all depend on electronic-services today, whether we
speak about the E-Tax Board, E-school, E-medical prescriptions, E-mobile parking or Internet banking. Estonia was the
first country wherepeople could
cast their vote also online in parliamentary
and municipal elections, and in the last general election, 2011 over
more than a quarter of the votes were cast online Just a few
months ago we conducted our census for
the first time largely online, about 62 % of the census declarations were done
by a computer, and over ninetypercent
of taxpayersfiled their annual income tax
return on the Internet.

Today, to a large extent thanks to the extensive use of IT services,I can boast of a country that is more free from corruption and with a public administration more
transparent than most of the countries who shared our fate in Europe during the
Cold War, not to mention a number of countries who in
the Cold War were free
and democratic. .

In other words
thetechnological
enthusiasm of governmentscan have tremendous and rapid effects on the
development of society.

As I mentioned, governments cannot achieve it
all on their own. Entrepreneurs
expand the range of global knowledge networksby introducing new innovative products and services. We need to use them.They arethe key partners in fighting poverty and creating a more
transparent economy.Entrepreneurs can also make an outsized
difference in their communities and the world; people
like Karim Khoja, who led the creation of the first mobile phone company in
Afghanistan; Leila Janah, who started a non-profit computer-based microwork creating outsourcing jobs in the poorest parts of the world; and Victoria Hale, whose non-profit
pharmaceutical company turned an unused drug into a cure for black fever. These all illustrate the power of
private initiative and importance of partnerships between governments and the
private sector Government, must provide secure and fruitful soil for these sorts of ideas to emerge
and prosper.

The IT transformation,
that I talked about, will create
massive opportunities all over the world. We must, however, avoid a digital divide that would
stymie this historicchance to accelerate the development in all parts of the
world, and in particular on the issue of
transparency.

We know well
from our experience in the 90s that even in modest
circumstances,it is
possible to implement IT
solutions and to re-establish
or increase the trust of citizens towards the state. This becomes especially essential in post-conflict societies, where the lack of trust and participation provides
fertile ground for the recurrence of conflicts. Therefore Estonia wishes to share its E-governance skills and
experiences and to
continue to facilitate exchanges with partners worldwide.

Finally, this special eventseeks to spotlight
the negative effects of corruption and lack of transparency on sustainable
development and economic growth. Let us usethe
opportunity to exchange views on innovative approaches and partnerships in
combating these challenges. I wish you a fruitful
discussion and thank you in advance for your comments and
statements.